Year of the Ox/Europa and the Bull

I thought I’d get in early with a card to celebrate Chinese New Year 2021. I didn’t have any time to think about it last year.

The impending year is Year of the Ox, but I’ve stretched it to Europa and the Bull for the forthcoming arrival of Brexit, too. A kind of message to my friends in the EU saying, “don’t get carried away by the Bull.” I know what I mean, anyway.

The Davies Collection contains a woodcut print, Europa and the Bull by Gustav Heinrich Wolff. He used the black bull/white woman motif, but in that print Europa looks much more up for it than old Zeus. When I first thought of doing this, I’d got one of Albrecht Dürer’s Eves in mind, though she turned out to be more frontal than I wanted. So I plugged away trying to get the angle right, and the arm and hand, and the turn of the head. The bull/ox shaped up very quickly, and appeared almost fully formed at the start.

I’m really pleased with the composition. The circularity of the arm leading to the bull’s body, turned back up by the horns, through her body back to the arm. There’s a kind of Yin and Yang thing going on, too. And the horn pointing at her crotch says, “Danger!”

I think I shall print some cards like this, then remove the year for more general use….